Daily 1: Daily public journal

November 21, 2016

Sometimes it’s discouraging being a writer.

You see, I just wrote this big, lovely post where I set out to explain what I was about to do, and what that “Daily 1” in the title means. I think it was quite good, and honest, and all that jazz. Then I realized that I’d already written it. “Radical transparency. I’ll try.” Whoops.

The crux of that post, and the other I half-wrote today, is that I wanted to be more open. I wanted to be vulnerable in the way that James Altucher or Amanda Palmer or Casey Neistat are, to share more of my life so I could build the connection I was lacking. I wanted to do that because there’s value in it, both for the one being vulnerable and the ones experiencing that vulnerability. True human connection is so rare, and with the chance to build a real relationship with my audience in a way that was never possible before the internet, it seemed a shame that I wasn’t taking advantage of it.

Vulnerability is also where the great art comes from, the type of art that really speaks to people. If I’m ever to get better as a storyteller, I need to get better at tapping into that. So I vowed to work on it.

(It seems appropriate that I announce this right after one of my examples, Caset Neistat, quit vlogging. It’s also instructive—I doubt I’ll do this forever, and if it gets in the way of my fiction writing too much, I’ll drop it after a couple of test weeks. For the moment, at least, I think it has value, so I’m going to give it a try.)

Why daily? Because if I don’t put something on my calendar, it’s not going to happen. Because I’m not a half-measures kind guy, and if I don’t do a thing every single day (or at least five out of seven), it probably isn’t going to happen. Because I need to back myself into a corner, to burn through the easy topics, before I’ll go deeper.

Why blog? Because I’m not good at “short,” and because 140 characters isn’t a good length for any kind of connection. Not for me, at least. I think long and deep, not short and fast. Plus I like having it hosted on my platform, and spreading it through others.

Will I be oversharing? Fuck no. That’s annoying. I don’t intend to waste your time, nor talk about my back rash or bowel movements. As Brené Brown, an actual researcher who studies this stuff, says, “Vulnerability minus boundaries does not equal vulnerability.” So none of that.

Am I going to stop writing the kinds of posts I’ve been writing? No. I’ve got some in the works, and I’m not going to junk them. Maybe sometimes I’ll blog twice a day. Maybe sometimes I’ll do the other posts instead of a daily. I’m feeling this out as I go.

Like I said, I’ll try this for two weeks. If it goes well, I’ll keep going. If it doesn’t, I’ll stop. But for at least two weeks, I’ll be as honest and open about one thing that went on during my day as I can be without embarrassing my coworkers or customers (friends: you’ve no such luck). We’ll see how it goes.